Obesity in York County: As U.S. food production grew, so did Americans

Food prices dropped, family size shrunk and calories per meal rose.

Christine Kirkpatrick, of Springettsbury Township, and her 7-year-old daughter Carisa pick tomatoes from their plot in the community gardens at the Horn Farm Center. The center, in Hellam Township, promotes local, sustainable agriculture that makes it easier for people to eat traditional whole food instead of the processed food that has come
to dominate the American diet the last 60 years. (DAILY RECORD / SUNDAY NEWS -- KATE PENN)

They gathered in 1948, 40 poultry farmers from 26 states, at the University of Delaware's substation in Georgetown for the finals of the USDA's "Chicken-of-Tomorrow" contest.

For two years, these farmers had experimented with breeding, feeding and nurturing techniques.

"Their goal," according to an article from the USDA's 1975 yearbook detailing the contest, "was to produce chickens with broader breasts, thicker drumsticks, flatter and broader backs, unblemished skin, no pin feathers and no general undesirable characteristics."

At that point, chicken was still a relative rarity in American diets.

For the first half of the 20th century, most of the country's chickens were raised in backyards for eggs, not meat. Before scientists discovered in the 1930s that cod oil in feed could supplement Vitamin D from the sun necessary for chickens to grow strong, raising chickens indoors was almost impossible. That meant most American shoppers could find chicken only during the summer, raised from eggs laid in the spring.

But with the baby boom and economic prosperity that followed World War II, the U.S. government wanted to spur agricultural innovation -- innovation that eventually allowed food producers to feed, and over-feed, Americans.

But that initial impulse to improve led those 40 farmers to bring 400 chicks to the "Chicken-of-Tomorrow" judging, then the hub of the country's poultry industry. The individual results paled in comparison to the gains in knowledge.

Within two years of those finals, the amount of feed needed to raise a chicken had been cut in half. Because they started including antibiotics in feed, farmers could raise more birds in close quarters. Year-round breeding expanded, and chicken went from a rare treat to a routine staple within a decade. At the same time, production of beef, pork, corn and soybeans was undergoing similar streamlining.

Even as the country's population grew, our farms produced more food than we needed.

Wansink -- the author of "Mindless Eating," founder Cornell's Food and Brands Lab and the president elect of the Society of Nutritional Eating -- studied eight different editions of "The Joy of Cooking" published from 1936 to 2001.

Every recipe in the book except one, he found, included more calories by the 2001 edition, an average of 44 more calories per serving. Similar cookbooks that topped bestseller lists during the same range also saw spikes in calories per meal.

Chili recipes included more beef and fewer beans. Many dishes called for more meat and fewer vegetables. Suggested portion size, on average, had increased by a third.

During the same 70 year time span, the average American family shrunk from 5.7 members to 3.9 members.

"The recipe that used to feed a family of six is being fed to a family of four, and there are more calories," Wansink said.

The members of that family are also likely eating three meals a day, something, Wansink said, that became standard practice only after World War II. Before then, many Americans ate two meals and a snack.

We could do all this -- substituting meat for vegetables, adding another meal -- because of how cheap food had become.

In 1960, Wansink found, the average family spent 24 percent of its budget on food. Today, a family spends on six percent on food.

"When you spend that big of a percentage on food, you're going to be really careful what you spend it on," Wansink said.

By the 1980s and '90s, the new routines had become so regular, it was as if we had always lived this way. As ever more variety of processed foods filled store shelves and fast food began supersizing, we cooked less and ate even more.

The trend applied locally too. According to the Horn Farm Center, 99.5 percent of the $900 million spent on food by York County residents goes to food producers outside of the area, and much of that is being spent on processed food.

Our fattening -- much like those chickens of tomorrow -- followed.

HOW LONG HAVE WE KNOWN?

In its annual yearbooks -- a look at the latest research in farming -- the United States Agricultural Department has touched on American's widening waistlines since at least 1959. Much of the quoted advice sounds similar to what you'll find in reports detailing the "new" obesity crisis.

Take a look.

--- From "Trends on Height and Weight" from the 1959 yearbook:

"Evidence from the 1955 study by the Department of Agriculture shows that persons with education beyond high school generally maintain a more desirable weight for height than those with less education."

--- From "Calories and Body Weight" from the 1959 yearbook:

"The intake of large quantities of high-energy foods -- for example, sweets, with no regard to other dietary essentials -- will lead to overweight."

The article also noted a study of incoming freshman at Cornell University found that 23 percent of men and 36 percent of women were overweight.

--- From "Calories and Weight" from the 1965 yearbook:

"An extra half-hour spent daily in purposeful walking and 30 minutes less spent sitting means that for an average size man or woman about 45 added calories will be burned up."

--- The closing article of the 1971 article was titled "A look back from the Year 2000."

That year's book focused on overcrowding and finding food for the nation as the Baby Boomers grew up. It touches on a number of topics, including revitalizing small towns, infrastructure growth, etc. They talked about a future with fewer hours in the work day, so employees could be more active, envisioned that under the National Mall would be built "a great complex of gymnasiums, health spas, indoor tennis courts, handball courts, exercise rooms and swimming pools, along with cinemas and reading rooms."

Colin Kirkpatrick, 12, hammers a stake into his family's community garden plot at the Horn Farm Center in Hellam Township. Independent farmers can lease acreage from the center to develop and demonstrate
small-scale sustainable agriculture. (DAILY RECORD / SUNDAY NEWS -- KATE PENN)